The strained air only continued to sustain throughout the rustling noises of my belongings being packed. My room was a bit of a dump. Books scattered across the floor, clothes in piles set in random corners of my room and different scrap books filled to the brink all over my small bedside table, some pages torn away by the constant flicking I would do, starting each new page.

My parents inaudibly stood with their mouths gaping wide, contorting in different shapes yet never actually speaking a word. Their stares remain fixed on my small frame that picks the necessary pieces up off the floor and sets them aside with the rest or brings them with him.

“I see the sword has served you well, Eli. I know it’s not quite yet your fit, but it always felt right to hand it to you.” Father commented, noticing my hand hover over the sword, eyes closed and thoughts brimming in my mind. This journey would require an ace weapon, no matter what. I was determined to come back alive. I have yet to learn all I could from these two people. I have yet to begin loving them.

I gripped the scabbard tightly and raised the sword from the stand, sliding it into the brown bag pinned at my back. My fathers dimensional storage item. It still confused me. Though it stored many things, it was still absolutely weightless. Lighter than a feather.

“Can I have a moment?” I asked the two of them who guarded the door. They acceptingly nodded and closed the door behind them. The things on my floor, I began picking them up and reading through my notes, experiences, Aldir’s and Ronny's emotions, and my constant update on surging feelings. Although it may not have been long ago, it felt nostalgic. I learned so much, but I was still the same person. My personal updates were left blank all apart from nonsensical writing inspired by my delusion. I smiled and dropped the book and then set my bed.

My door creaked open, and my parents no longer stood at the door. I wasn’t surprised, actually I was rather relieved. “Let’s get going again. This time, however, it won’t be the same. I have somewhere to return to, someone waiting for me. I have a place outside of murder and endless bloodshed. Even if I can’t reciprocate the feelings, the knowledge soothes my shivering heart, bound by chains of ice.

I trod on the steps, letting all my weight fall onto it. A familiar clattering roared under my foot, compressing on its fragile skeleton and releasing the intense burden it withstood, even if it was only for seconds, before its comrade’s carried on the journey. The light narrowly wriggled its way onto the last steps, the rays that escaped from the tyrannical prison of inseparable grey clouds sipping hail blinding my view, two shadows marginally spread into my deterred vision. Their outspread arms awaited me, calling for me. I slipped on my fur coat and jumped into the embrace.

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“We will be…awaiting your response. Come back, safely.” My father stumbled, tears flowing from his eyes. My mother did the same and patted my head.

Once I was about to step out, she quickly pulled me in for one more hug. “Don’t…D,don’t forget us! I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you, but know, I love you with everything! Always remember, we’d want you to live on living a better life. Revenge isn't a direction worth dedicating time to. I, I, I…love you!” Her snivelling tone sounded like it was her goodbye, like she knew something. Heavy crying with a large volume of tears poured from her well and wailing assaulted my eyes.

I let her rest on my chest, until she calmed herself. “I’ll be back.” With that, I hoisted the heavy wooden door open, letting the fury of the wind travel into our home, the gale raising my hair in the wind until my steps collapsed in the crumpling snow. I nodded, a reverent smile dawning my features as I shut the door.

“I wonder, when I come back…will things remain the same? Will in this short time something change? I’m not ready to sprout my wings and fly away from my nest, but if fate forces me…I will be forced to learn on the go.” A soft spoken sombre tone rustled from my mouth, the clouds pressing further ahead and moving the eye of the storm much closer to me.

I should hope this doesn’t hinder my journey too much, I thought, picking up the pace of my steps until I started in a light jog accelerated by the force of mana flowing within my limbs. The snow shattered beneath my weight and imprinted my existence.

“I was here”, was what I announced. Though the gesture was small and meaningless, the smallest things are making me sentimental. Perhaps straying from macabre scenes at the head of all the chaos made me so weak. I feel like though I hadn’t changed, I certainly discarded some part of myself. The vicious, bloodthirsty me that would drown my opponent in a feeling of despair and certain death. I no longer get that thrill, that emotion that stayed so close by. Hopefully it was gone for good. But it really may have been distance.

My lonesome journey continued even amongst the deteriorating conditions that swept me more in ivory frost and dry, algid air. The North East was still my target. To be more precise, the Challenger caverns. A place I had been to only a few times previously. I think only thrice, when it was called upon as a requirement of the academy. For someone like me who was rich, treasure didn’t excite me and as a student I focused on gaining strength and mastering my craft, not challenging the unknown in such an unpredictable place that’s layout seemed to alter every time. I’m only going now, because of the opportunity it can spur out of nothing for my family. A tumbling snowball which gathers momentum and snow along its fall.

“It’s getting dark. I should rest somewhere.” I muttered in cold breath, smoke generating from my deep painful breaths as the little ice spears flocked down my windpipe and followed into my lungs. My tracing scarlet blaze searched around, looking for a suitable place to settle down in. Nothing immediately seized my attentive eye and so I was forced to take shelter in the uneven, thorny, bare branches sprouting, but at the tips shrivelling. I jumped atop and laid down on an especially thick branch carved in markings explained only by the harshness of mother nature.

Sigh…

The stars were hidden by an overlay of grey clouds and only the dark circled me. “Let’s get this done quickly. I nearly forgot how uncomfortable it is to sleep in places like these.”